Tuesday, February 14, 2012

"I am writing this week's Free on iTunes in Microsoft Word 2010. Normally there'd be nothing earth-shattering or even mildly newsworthy about what I'm doing."

We posted about OnLive coming to the iPad about a month ago, and now that it's out there in the wild, just how does it work? Seems to work pretty well, with 2GB of storage free for your stuff, you work in a virtual Windows world so if you are used to Office you will be right at home it appears. I mean it's worth a shot, after all it won't cost you a dime.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

"Microsoft released updates for Office 2008 and Office 2011 for the Mac on Wednesday. The updates addressed issues with each suite's email application, and the Office 2011 update also disabled the ability to import messages from Lion's Mail app into Outlook because the feature isn't working as expected."

The Office 2008 update is numbered 12.31.1, while the Office 2011 update is numbered 14.1.3, both available now. No word yet on when a fix for the import feature from Mail will be released.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

"Last June I posted my iPad Office app showdown article looking at four available applications. This post has been extremely popular with readers and I have since received dozens of email inquiries for an updated article to see if my conclusions are the same or if there are more choices this year with the iPad and iPad 2 now available from Apple."

You can read the original article here, but with this new article he looks at six different office suite applications you can use on the iPad. His result? Well I don't think it's too much of a surprise that he chooses iWork (Pages, Numbers and Keynote) as the winner due to the functionality, although it is expensive. A close runnerup is Quickoffice Pro HD, which he says is "visually as good as iWorks, missing some functions in word processor, excellent cloud support." The article is well worth reading, especially if you are trying to find an application for your iPad, and you may find that his summary gives you just what you need in order to make a decision. I'm curious though, what do you use on your iPad?

Friday, June 17, 2011

"Last night, Apple released Airport Utility 5.5.3, a minor bug release update for both Apple's AirPort Extreme base stations as well as Time Capsule. More interesting, though, is reference within the update to incoming updates to Apple's two wireless routers. Are these the iOS-running, A5-equipped Time Capsules we've been waiting for?"

Apparently there is a reference in the update about storing updates, which is leading them to believe this may be in preparation for a rumored new Time Capsule, which makes sense since it needs to work with the new iCloud system. But that isn't the only update that came out this week.

Crucial released an update for new firmware for the Crucial M4 SSD that will make them compatible with the 2011 MacBook Pro, which is available here.

Apple released several updates, including iMac Graphic FW Update 2.0 available here (fixes iMac hanging issue during startup or when waking from sleep), Airport Utility 5.5.3 for Mac available here (the Windows version is here, and both fix various bugs including the Airport Utility shutting down during setup bug).

Monday, October 18, 2010

"This is one awesome Mac setup: A 24″ iMac hooked up to an external monitor, alongside another 30″ external monitor being powered by a 15″ MacBook Pro... and don't forget the two iPhone's and iPad. Definitely an amazing workstation, I'd just be a little nervous with that iMac so close to the edge of the desk!"

This is a pretty clean, albeit simple setup. I'm curious though, what does your setup look like? I'm in the process of moving my home office and I'm looking for ideas. Post a pic and let us see your setup!

Thursday, September 30, 2010

"Although some Mac owners will opt for Apple's own iWork suite when it comes time to getting work done, many others will take comfort in Microsoft Office for Mac, particularly if Office was the first productivity suite they learned to use, or if it's the one they use every day on their work computer."

And starting October 26th, you can have your choice since Office for Mac 2011 will finally be released. Microsoft has a page all set up [link] outlining the features of this updated program, but one feature I like already is the price. $99.00 USD for the Student Version and a mere $119.00 USD for the Home Edition [affiliate link]. That being said, if you want Outlook with your office suite, you will have to go with the Business version that will set you back $199.00, so not too happy about that. Of course there are other choices out there, but check out the review before you make your decision, you might decide it is worth the price.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

"While television commercials for the iPad highlight all the fun you can have with it--watching HD movies, reading books, and playing games--Apple reminds us you can also use it to get work done."

And to prove it, the folks over at Laptop Magazine have put several productivity suites through their paces. They reviewed iWork for iPad, Dataviz and Quickoffice to see just how well they work on the iPad. Surprisingly, to me at least, iWork was the only one that didn't sync with Google Docs. As prolific as that is, I would think they would have added that functionality to their product. But if that isn't important to you, it has other benefits and you can read all about it in the reviews for each one, just click on the links for each one above.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

"Screenshots of Microsoft's 2011 version of its productivity suite for Mac have appeared, highlighting a more serious user interface appearance and the Vista Ribbon."

Not sure which one I like better, but the Microsoft Office Ribbon sure is busy. Even though they are now using Cocoa framework, it still looks very much like a Microsoft product. Anyone out there going to be using this when it comes out?

Thursday, March 11, 2010

"According to a Microsoft security bulletin, seven privately reported vulnerabilities in Excel could allow remote code execution if a user were to open a specially-crafted file. By exploiting those vulnerabilities, an attacker could gain the same user rights as a local user."

Friday, February 12, 2010

"Microsoft on Thursday detailed some of the new features in its forthcoming Office for Mac 2011 suite, including co-authoring tools, Web apps, and a redesigned ribbon interface more consistent with its Windows counterpart."

According to Eric Wilfrid, MacBU General Manager at Microsoft, "Together with your team -- officemates, family or classmates -- you are part of the community that helps shape each version of Office for Mac. You’ve told us that working together across platforms is a priority to you and that’s why we are making Office for Mac 2011 the best, most compatible productivity suite on the Mac." No pricing set yet, but some of the specifics are co-authoring tools that allow multiple users to work on files from different locations with real-time updates, access to Microsoft Web Apps from within the program so you can share documents from any machine with an Internet connection and allowing Outlook to import .PST files from Outlook for Windows.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

"Microsoft on Tuesday issued updates for its venerable Office suite versions 2004 and 2008. Office 2004 gets a security boost with the Mac 11.5.6 update, which corrects a vulnerability that could allow a remote baddie to overwrite your computer's memory. The 2008 version sees the same security fix in its Mac 12.2.3 update, plus a host of other minor upgrades, such as resolving text spacing issues in documents that originated on Windows system."

This also helps with instability in Word, as well as Excel and PowerPoint. Entourage is also upgraded with an improved junk mail filter. The 2004 update requires OS X 10.2.8 or newer and also that the previous update 11.5.5 be installed. For the 2008 update you need OS X 10.4.9 or newer with the previous 12.1.0 update having been installed prior to this one.

Friday, August 14, 2009

"Hell has frozen over: Microsoft's Mac Business Unit says that the next version of Office for Mac will arrive in 2010 with a genuine Outlook client and better Exchange support."

According to a Microsoft rep, "Because it's designed for the Mac, it will be different from Outlook for Windows," Wilfrid said. "But it will be fully compatible. For instance, Outlook for Mac will support Information Rights Management, which controls access to sensitive documents." Using Cocoa framework and a different database design is supposed to improve the integration with Time Capsule as well. I've never been a fan of Outlook anyway, too many other choices that I think work better, but regardless of that, Microsoft has issued a press release if you are interested in all the changes.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

"Office 2008 included many new painstakingly crafted features, more than are easy to list - a year after launch a few that I'm still commonly pointing out to people because I know they'll get hooked on them are Publishing Layout View, SmartArt, and Ledger Sheets. Since Office 2008 launched in January, we've been highly focused on developing and releasing continuous updates, with a focus on monitoring and improving the stability and performance of the product. Just in our Office 12.1.2 update for example, Word's launch time improved by as much as 30% and Excel's calculation performance by as much as 50% (some calc-heavy test cases saw even more improvement - the result of floating point math optimizations.)"

It's hard to argue that Office 2008 didn't suck less than Office 2004, but there are still things it does seriously poorly (for example, why do Pivot Tables still suck and why is there still no ODBC drivers for MS Jet (Access) and MS SQL included with the suite?). Sucking less probably wasn't their goal. In fact, I don't use Office on the Mac all that much anymore except when I need Excel. For word processing, I still use Pages, and for presentations I use Keynote and that's due in no small part to Microsoft's insistence on making an inferior version of Office for the Mac available in an effort to keep people on the Windows Platform. Here's a tip to the team: Make 2009 not only suck less, but make it better.